How I Met Your Mother: The Ted/Robin Conundrum and Barney's Diabolical PlanMonday, October 15, 2007

How I Met Your Mother, even on its mediocre nights, still provides more laughs than any other TV sitcom. Tonight's episode was one of those just OK episodes where neither story clicked or resonated, everything a bit unfocused and disjointed. But, How I Met Your Mother is a comedy and I still laughed. It's hard to complain about that. While tonight's episode was completely self-contained, it encapsulated a big issue that fans have been discussing all season long, namely, how the season should play out with Robin and Ted broken up.

The first season of How I Met Your Mother was about Ted and Robin coming together, the second spanning the entirety of their relationship, from the honeymoon period to the two of them growing apart. What, then, is the third season going to be? Thus far, it's spun its wheels in the greater scheme, with Ted and Robin testing the waters. Tonight we had two distinctly separate stories, yet the general point was the same: Ted/Robin date somebody, recognize a fatal flaw in the significant other, and end the relationship. Personally, I've always enjoyed the show more when the entire gang was together. This year, the pattern has been this: the A story is going to be about Ted and Barney on the prowl, the B story about Robin's less funny love life, with Marshall and Lily somewhere in between. The problem here is twofold: 1) Barney and Ted can be funny on their own, but suffer from a lack of interaction with the other three and 2) Robin's story is always going to less funny than Ted and Barney's. Hopefully, the writers have recognized this issue and will find away to bring all five of the players back together. Otherwise, while How I Met Your Mother will remain worth watching, it won't soar to the heights of seasons one and two.

Also worth mentioning tonight was Barney's awesome and diabolical scheme to win a bet with Ted. Although it ultimately backfired, only Barney would create such a complicated and convoluted situation to prove himself. Neil Patrick Harris's Barney, when it's all said and done, will go down in TV comedy lore as one of its greatest supporting characters, joining the likes of Chandler, Dwight and Kramer.